Wednesday, November 11, 2009

I am not in a place where my body will let me go to the gym every morning to do HIIT cardio and left 2-3 times a week, AND train bjj and judo 3 times a week. Not yet.

Hit the wall last Thursday. My lead hand wrist has been really really sore and stiff for a couple of weeks now (no idea why), and I had my knee give out in judo. That (the knee) was my absolute red flag sign: I haven't had knee issues in a LONG time.

The knee seems fine now, the wrist not so much, but what I'm thinking/hoping is the case is that these weren't specific incidents where I will have chronic issues with these joints. I think I was just asking too much from my body at once.

NO coincidence that this philosophy happens to follow in the footsteps of a recent issue of GracieMag that espouses the overall lifestyle that tends to enter the life of anyone who trains in bjj and wants to do so for the rest of their life. Last week I also changed up my diet to restrict carbs (to varying success - man that's a hard habit to break), and last week I didn't get anywhere NEAR enough sleep. And work had me all bent out of shape.

That probably lead to a cumulative inflammatory overreaction in my system. Way more than could be handled by a few fish oil capsules.

So this week I'm making a point to sleep more. Reel back the lifting to days that I'm not training martial arts that evening. Doing intu-flow daily again to nourish the connective tissue and sort of recenter myself. Enough water.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Oh how proud my journalism professors would be, using a lead like that.

I used to think of BJJ as a boyfriend that treated me like shit, but I kept chasing after anyways. Well, we've long since gone to couples therapy, and it's more like a marriage now. A good one, not one of those ones you see disintegrate on Jerry Springer.

Lately, though... I've been fooling around with my husband's best friend: judo. And I don't care what the neighbors may think.

Okay, enough metaphor. I'm having an absolute BLAST in judo class (which isn't to say I don't in BJJ), and I think the work of gripfighting and trying to read the momentum of what I'm doing or what my partner is doing is going to translate over well to my work in BJJ. And maybe it already is. I'm really hoping it improves my timing, especially with sweeps since I find myself in a defensive posture the vast majority of the time in bjj.

Maybe it's because I'm encouraged to use strength with my technique. Maybe it's just a natural inclination I have to throw people. Maybe it's just the experience of studying something almost entirely new to me. Whichever, I'm finding myself newly inspired. And that's always something I welcome.

In bjj, I'm toeing the line of going hypercritical on myself, a common derailment that has reared its head in my studies all along. I'm trying very very hard to not get frustrated, to instead try harder to make things work, make things stick (my biggest obstacle), and make things flow (a close 2nd place in the obstacle department). It is my intention to drill more with people, but life keeps getting in the way. And few and far between are the people who will lower themselves to just drilling (read: letting the old rusty broad flop about and try to get the moves down).

ADD is no friend to learning bjj. Last week I had a horrible evening because I couldn't focus. Too many moves, too much rushing about, not enough reps, and nowhere near the attention span I needed. The harder I tried to focus, the more easily distracted I became. Which only made me that much angrier and less capable of focusing. I told a friend later that I wish the drug companies could come up with something akin to an asthma inhaler for ADD. It doesn't derail me like this that often, but when it does, it is horribly infuriating.

dialing back my lifting a bit this week. I'm restricting my lifting days to those day in which I'm not training bjj or judo that night. Doubling up on those days is causing more damage than I can heal from. I'm skirting injury. Probably looking at lifting and cardio intervals 2 mornings a week, the rest will go to cardio intervals only. Rest on the weekends.

I'm frustrated on the nutrient timing angle of this though. I know I need to make more wholesale changes to my regular diet, but can't seem to find 2 sources that agree on the whats and hows of it. Carbs are okay or not? Restrict them after 7pm or allow if post-workout? I hate to waste time with a procedure that isn't going to work, but I also know it generally takes 8-10 weeks of consistency before I can tell if something is or is not working for me.

Maybe this week I will try and go back to protein shakes for dinner. Mostly protein. carbs only from recovery drink. It's hard though, I usually come home pretty hungry. Maybe some fruit/clean carbs in the afternoon before training.

We'll see how less lifting affects things. Judo is my last day of martial arts training for the week, typically. By Friday morning, I'm pretty fatigued. Sore knees, sore wrist, sometimes weak ankles -- I'm hoping those are just signs that I can eradicate by backing off a little on lifting, and getting back on track with my fish oil supplementation.